A method for scheduling one or more backup jobs among backup clients with a common backup window. The method includes collecting and recording historical information pertaining to the backup clients with the common backup window. An application then estimates the number of open files during the common backup window based on the historical information and infers an impact of skipping a backup of the open files during the common backup window, where the impact is inferred from the historical information according to one or more predetermined criteria. The estimated number of open files and the inferred impact of skipping the backup of the estimated number of open files during the common backup window are then combined according to a predetermined cost function. The order of the backup jobs for the backup clients during the common backup window is then scheduled to reduce the predetermined cost function.